The Bayeux Tapestry has only once been moved from Normandy since 1803Universal Histroy Archive/Getty Images

The first loan of the Bayeux Tapestry outside France for 950 years, revealed today by The Times, is expected to be to the British Museum in 2022.

Although the museum stopped short of confirming that it had secured the loan, its director gave a statement saying that his museum would welcome it.

Hartwig Fischer, who became head of the museum in 2016, said: “This would be a major loan, probably the most significant ever from France to the UK. It is a gesture of extraordinary generosity and proof of the deep ties that link our countries. The Bayeux Tapestry is of huge importance, as it recounts a crucial moment in British and French history, 1066.